On the latest Sports Retort, the Journal’s Pia Catton joins us to handicap this weekend’s Belmont Stakes and Tony Awards. That means talk of whether California Chrome can pull off the Triple Crown, but also whether current Broadway star and Harry Potter alum Daniel Radcliffe could work as a horse jockey. Geoff, Jim and Pia rate all the horses while trying to construct the perfect trifecta bet. Geoff also wonders why the dirt at Belmont Park, known as Big Sandy, is so much nicer than what he finds at the average New York City playground.

We also imagine the awkward family reunion for the offspring of former American Horse of the Year A.P. Indy, I freak out about the start of the Stanley Cup Finals and we wonder how the Tonys found no room for the English version of this song. Read More »

Oklahoma City Thunder forward Nick Collison joins the Sports Retort to handicap the NBA finals and discuss how NBA players pass the interminable time between playoff games. Hint: Lots and lots of Netflix. He talks about the basketball culture in Seattle, the Thunder’s former home, and tells a great story about how he found out about his beloved Kansas Jayhawks’ shocking NCAA tournament loss to Michigan. He also explains the clever marketing that went into naming his hometown, Iowa Falls, even though there are no natural waterfalls there.

Pia Catton also joins the three-man weave for our second annual edition of Ponies and Tonys, where we handicap both the Belmont Stakes and the Tony Awards. She’s an expert. It’s the only horseracing preview where you’ll ever hear a horse compared to a monorail. Read More »

Anyone upset with the game LeBron James played Thursday? His six turnovers a problem at all?

Before, actually long before, LeBron James notched a triple-double in the deciding game of the NBA Finals, and before he was handed the most foregone NBA Finals MVP trophy since Michael Jordan hoisted the hardware, it all seemed pre-ordained. No player is supposed to put up a triple-double in the last game of the NBA Finals—indeed, only five players in history ever have, and only 10 have won the NBA MVP and Finals MVP in the same season. But LeBron James wasn’t supposed to be measured by those standards, because he was and is bigger than that, and potentially better than anyone any fan had ever seen play, the aforementioned and untouchable Jordan included. Those expectations explain why the predominant emotion for James and the fans that have watched him after Thurday’s 121-106 Game 5 win over Oklahoma City was simple relief. Or, as James himself said after the win, “It’s about damn time.” Read More »

I’ll Have Another – the horse that can outdraw a Subway Series and Brazil-Argentina soccer singlehoofedly.

You might have heard something about it. On Saturday, I’ll Have Another will race at Belmont Park and could become horseracing’s first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978. Belmont is expecting a crowd of 100,000 people or more for the race, with ticket prices running into the hundreds. This will, of course, not prevent most stories about the horse, the race and everything else about Belmont from describing horseracing as a flailing, declining sport—see, it just happened again! But neither will it take away from the excitement of this race and the brilliant racehorse that made it matter. Read More »

Which was a better advertisement for Woods? Staring silently at a camera, or this?

There is more than one type of magic at work at the Masters. There’s the course and the tradition and the Masters-y timelessness of the whole thing. Perhaps the best thing about the Masters is the way the event’s less appealing and more self-important aspects fall away once the golf starts. After the media’s relentless Tiger-baiting earlier this week, after the jaw-droppingly sanctimonious scolding Masters chairman Billy Payne addressed to Woods on Wednesday — which George Vecsey nailed in the New York Times as sounding “like a caller on some bad sports-talk radio show” – there was, finally, the golf tournament. And it was good.

It was, in fact, very good. First-day leaders were of the Endearing Veteran Underdog variety: 50-year-old Fred Couples rode the momentum from his dominant first year on the Champions Tour to a six-under showing and an early lead, with oddly resurgent 60-year-old Tom Watson just one stroke behind. Tiger coolly turned in the best opening Masters round of his career, complete with a pair of eagles, and seems poised to make this weekend very, very interesting for golf fans. Read More »

Jockey Joe Talamo helped make I Want Revenge a Derby favorite with this win last month at the Wood Memorial.

“What’s all the fuss about, I wondered, as racing writers around the country extolled the talents of I Want Revenge, touting the young colt as a possible favorite for the Kentucky Derby following his win in the Gotham Stakes,” the Providence Journal’s Jim Donaldson writes. “Then I watched him win the Wood Memorial four weeks ago. Now I understand why he’ll be the likely — and deserving — favorite in the 134th Run for the Roses on Saturday afternoon beneath the fabled twin spires at Churchill Downs in Louisville… Anyone who has seen his last-to-first run in the Wood — available for review, for those so inclined, on YouTube — would have to say the Jeff Mullins-trained son of Stephen Got Even is a very nice race horse.”

At 3-to-1 odds, I Want Revenge is the strong favorite to wear the roses on Saturday, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you should bet him. Or bet at all. For most of us, betting on the Derby is primarily a simple way to tack a few minutes of frustration onto the end of your 120 or so seconds of actual watching-the-race excitement. But in Forbes, Christina Settimi endeavors to give potential bettors a walk-through of how to at least lose like you know what you’re doing. Read More »

Even when Ty Lawson is playing injured, Duke can’t find a way to beat North Carolina. On Sunday, the second-ranked Tar Heels won the ACC regular-season title with a 79-71 victory over the Blue Devils, North Carolina’s fifth win in their past six meetings. UNC’s only loss came when Lawson was out.

Getty Images

Ty Lawson exulted in the Tar Heels’ latest defeat of Duke.

Lawson wasn’t overpowering — he scored 13 points, and added nine assists and eight rebounds — but he was steady enough despite an injured big toe on his right foot in likely lifting the Tar Heels to the No. 1 spot in the nation this week after prior top dog UConn lost to Pitt. Read More »

The Los Angeles Lakers knew about Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett. But Leon Powe? The Boston Celtics reserve — who played all of 68 seconds in one 13-game stretch this season — had 21 points, joining Messrs. Pierce (28 points), Allen (17) and Garnett (17). But Mr. Powe scored his points in 15 [...] Read More »

Paul Pierce, who has struggled through highs and mostly lows in 10 seasons with the Boston Celtics, helped push his new teammates Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett into their first NBA finals through the rocky first few rounds. When Mr. Pierce fell, clutching his knee, in the third quarter, a championship series without their captain [...] Read More »

Before you get started, don’t miss the Fix’s favorite sports columns from May. The Detroit Red Wings’ coronation — and farewells to the too-young Pittsburgh Penguins — will have to wait a bit. The Penguins walked into Joe Louis Arena in Detroit down 3-1 in the Stanley Cup Finals and having been outscored 7-0 in [...] Read More »

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The Daily Fix blog provides takes on the latest sports news. Features include The Count, a look at the most revealing sports stats, as well as regular live reports of major sports events. Go to the Journal’s sports page for up-to-date coverage on the latest in sports.

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About The Daily Fix

Jeremy Gordon is a freelance writer who lives in Chicago. He has written for TheAtlantic.com, MTV and Prefix and occasionally Tumbles and Tweets. The last time he cried was when Steve Bartman dropped the ball.

Jared Diamond writes about sports for The Wall Street Journal. He currently serves as a beat reporter covering the New York Mets and Major League Baseball.

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